France Cracks Down on Migrant Sham Marriages
18th June 2025
After several high-profile cases, French MPs have voted to enshrine in law a ban on mayors celebrating marriages between French nationals and individuals facing deportation. The mobilisation of courageous mayors against illegal immigration has therefore finally borne fruit.
A few months ago, Robert Ménard, the conservative mayor of Béziers in southern France, was taken to court for refusing to marry a local woman to an illegal Algerian immigrant subject to an order to leave French territory (OQTF). Refusing to plead guilty, he called for a change in French law, which currently punishes elected officials who refuse to perform marriages in such cases—regardless of the fiancé’s illegal presence on French soil. He faces up to five years in prison, a fine of €75,000, and disqualification from public office.
A few weeks later, another mayor followed suit. Marlène Mourier, mayor of Bourg-lès-Valence, refused to perform a marriage deemed a ‘marriage of convenience’ between a French woman and an illegal Tunisian immigrant. Mourier and Ménard, joined by two other mayors, published an open letter in Le Figaro calling for a review of French law to prevent such situations from recurring and placing local elected officials in an impossible position—namely, giving their public blessing to a situation that is clearly illegal. President Macron himself, in his televised address last month, described the Ménard case as “grotesque” and came out in favour of changing the law.